Discover the history of a legendary temple, from its construction to today!

In 1250 BC, over 3000 years ago, Ramses II, a warrior and builder, reigned supreme over Egypt. He launched a gigantic construction site during his fifth year in reign. At the gates of Nubia, he erected two colossal temples dedicated to the Pharaoh and to his wife Nefertari.
The workers hammered 55 meters into the heart of a hill overlooking the Nile. They excavated thousands of cubic meters of...

Centuries after they first appeared in the landscape, many castles remain intact, complete with cathedrals and symbols of the Middle Ages and the power of their lords and rulers. For five centuries, the creation of these castles was accompanied by a political and cultural evolution during the medieval period.

Over time, the shapes, designs, and characteristics of the thousands of castles built in Europe have changed considerably. These structures represent a world in constant...

They stand watch along the French coast like guardians of the seas from an ancient time. Like the castles that punctuate the territory, the naval forts are the clearly visible vestiges of a time when France had to protect itself from foreign invasions...
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when the great naval powers such as the Netherlands and England were equipping themselves with ever more powerful warships and the oceans were veritable battlefields, France had to defend its...

In 2005, an Italian, Massimo De Caro, succeeded in deceiving the rare-book world by offering for sale a remarkable copy of "Siderius Nuncius" signed by Galileo himself, dating from 1610 and containing four watercolours of the moon painted by the astronomer. The "Sidereus Nuncius" or "Starry Messenger" is certainly Gallileo’s most important work and a scientific revolution for the time.
Experts around the world were unanimous in authenticating the book and there was talk of it selling for...

Suffused with mystery and grandeur, castles testify to medieval civilization and enfold a complex reality.
Travelling from castle to castle, from the borders of Spain to the mountains of Switzerland, from the moorland of Scotland to the banks of the Dordogne, and thanks to 3D modeling, this film traces a thousand years of medieval military construction.

With the constant evolution of construction methods and siege techniques, a frantic race began to achieve optimal...

For nearly five centuries, castles were at the heart of a society based on ties of vassalage, bringing together political, administrative, judicial and economic functions in addition to defending a territory.
This film traces the golden age of castles through the construction of the castle of Guédelon, 3D modeling and the meticulous reconstruction of the life of a seigniorial family in the twelfth or thirteenth century.

Born of Jewish parents of Russian origin, Maurice Joffo, brother of the author of the bestseller "A Bag of Marbles", tells of his childhood and adolescence in occupied France, his life and his amazing journey to becoming the wealthy 87-year old man that he is today.
From his flight to the Free Zone as a small boy in 1942 to his successful hair salon frequented by the stars, we discover a stubborn, inventive, curious and courageous character.

How did a small box from the United States start an unprecedented household revolution and play an unexpected role in the emancipation of women from Orlando, Florida to Tours, France?

Going beyond the product itself, the story of Tupperware is, without doubt, also that of feminism!
75 years after its invention, this is the heart-warming tale of the innovative plastic box that became a totem for the modern, active, emancipated woman.
A look back at a nutritional and...

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Bukovsky attempted to set
up a court to judge the crimes of communism. Currently entrenched in his house
in Cambridge and harassed by the British courts in a sordid sex case (possibly
engineered by the FSB), he shares with us the untold story of this aborted
trial. Rare footage and the testimonies of international experts help us to decipher
the political issues of the era, and shed new light on what Russia...

« Forgive me if I am a bit of a show-off but I deserve it. I am 140 years old and have a successful musical career behind me. I was born in 1880 in Mirecourt, the birthplace of French stringed instrument making. And then ? Well, follow me along the roads of France and enjoy the trip that my double bass player and I are making to reconstruct my story. This trip passes through Marseille where I played in an orchestra conducted by renowned composers of that time, such as Strauss and Saint-Saëns,...

Caught between the Israeli occupation and the threat of radical Islamism, the Christians of Palestine are being driven into exile and their number is inexorably declining, even though their presence in the Holy Land goes back 2000 years. Faced with the apparent indifference of the West who has abandoned them to their fate, today they are left helpless and in every sense of the word, against the Wall.

There have been many reports, documentary and fiction films about Palestine with...

Where do the soul-searching images of the First World War come from? Not merely telling the war, but seeing it, showing it in flesh and blood: this is what graphic novels offer us today. Exploring archives and history, the authors in this program converse with the depth of Time. They make First World War live again in our imagination: their drawings are more than strokes. These major artists have made the War the main subject of their graphic tales. We share with them a fascinating task:...

October 1943. The Vichy government intensified its fight against the Résistance. The Eysses prison in the Lot-et-Garonne was selected to gather together all the resistance fighters arrested and sentenced by the Special Courts. Within days, 1200 prisoners had arrived at the centre.
Far from weakening or dividing them, internment united them beyond their political persuasions and their social origins and reinforced their willingness to resume the fight. They set up a provisional republic...

One was deported for being a Jew, the other for being a Resistant, the third for being both... Three women who experienced the hell of the extermination camps describe their descent into the unspeakable...

Gisčle Guillemot, from Normandy, was involved in sabotaging German military trains. All of her male comrades were shot. As a woman, her death sentence was commuted to transportation to Ravensrück then Mauthausen.

If ever a Bonaparte counted apart from his brother Napoleon, it was Joseph.
In turns King of Naples, King of Spain and a member of the American bourgeoisie, he helped re-establish friendly relations and trade ties with the US.
During his stay in Point Breeze between 1815 and 1832, Joseph restored the Bonaparte image and became an influential man through his eloquence, culture, and the secrets that he kept.
This documentary portrays a man with two faces, European and...

December 1989. The Ceausescu regime collapses. The world discovers the horrible extent of this dictatorship, especially images showing hundreds of thousands of children confined and abused in orphanages. Marion is one of these orphans, a devil’s child, as she calls herself. A French couple adopted her when she was 6 years old. Today, at the age of 37, she has just given birth to her first child; this event brings her back to her own past, when she was abandoned the day she was born.

Civilian suffering and shortages didn’t stop as through by magic with the end of the war in 1945: the reconstruction process took many years to complete.
In Caen, one of the cities worst affected by bombing, wartime and post-war children look back on a time of hardship, but also of hope and solidarity.

This film follows step by step dramatic days from January to April 1814: 4 critical months in the history of Europe and France, packed with great and small events, politics, war, death and betrayal.
The story of “la Campagne de France” explains Napoleon’s fall: a military defeat despite many victories, the moral fall of a man who tried to die in battle and then by poison, before going into exile on Elba after a total and unconditional abdication.
A reflection on the fragility of...

His Majesty King Albert II and his wife Queen Paola reflect upon their lives in a frank and rare interview. Personal memories, encounters and daily pleasures, but also events that have marked Belgium, such as the abortion law, the Dutroux case and the “541 day” political crisis.
Exceptional lives, studded with achievements and obstacles, crowned by a 20-year reign remarkable for its humanity and simplicity. A rich document and an exclusive interview that’s destined to go down in...

In 32-33, in whole world indifference, the Staline's USSR plans an artificial starvation, called "Holodomor" which claims 6 millions victims.
Through survivors' narrations and french and ukrainian personalities' interviews, the film testifies to the means used by USSR in order to starve ukrainian farming community and to Staline's reasons to eradicate ukrainian nationalism. It shows how Staline succeeds in removing any physical and human trace of this genocide, the first committed in...

In the heart of Lithuania stands an astonishing hill completely covered with crosses.
Since its origin, dating back to the 19th century, the hill has been a symbol of the Lithuanian people's resistance in the presence of their oppressors. Facing attacks from various sides, Lithuania put up a spiritual resistance.
Indeed, in that country, faith is an act of resistance and the Hill of Crosses, standing as Lithuania's living memory, is to today's world a reminder of the great...

For 10 years, Admiral Flohic was advisor and aide-de-camp to General de Gaulle, then president of the French Republic.
A privileged observer, he shares some of the historical events he witnessed, including the reception of Adenauer and Kennedy, "Free Quebec", the surprise expedition to Baden-Baden in May 68, the General’s resignation after the 1969 referendum and the last trip to Ireland.
Memories in which personal anecdotes combine with great moments in history.

This documentary collection covers sixty years of history, from the Normandy landings on June 1944 to September 11, 2001 and including Hiroshima, the Korean War, decolonisation, the Arab-Israeli War, the Vietnam War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Kennedy, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King.

This chronological series focuses on the interweaving of historical facts, showing that events follow on from one another because they are linked.
With archive images, maps and testimonies,...

Over the course of ten episodes, amateur films from the past, images and modern day accounts combine to evoke the pluralistic memory and complex history of a region. Ultra-modern factories nestled in the hollows of valleys, popular imagery and folklore, memories of roped climbing parties, emigrants and immigrants, jewels of Baroque art, portraits of farmers, memories of the Resistance and even a detour to Nice... It’s through this mosaic of subjects, this human, social, historical and...

May 2010 : the discovery by German and French palaeontologists of a new hominid species. An investigation into the existence of this “intra-terrestrial” plunges us into a profusion of scientific, philosophical and moral questions.
The beginning of 2010 was full of surprises for those interested in Man’s origins.
The discovery of Denisova man and the revelation of interbreeding between Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals by researchers at the Max Planck University are decisive...

Throughout the Algerian War, for many months, young women wrote to young soldiers they didn't know. We use to call them the god mothers.
50 years later, they tell us their story : over the course of letters, feelings have evolved. A lot of them still ignored that, a word after an other, they were writing their own history, establishing links, in the middle of a war, with the one who will become the man of their lives.

In the 1950s, foreseeing the permanent disappearance of an agricultural tradition that had been maintained for centuries by generations of farmers, a filmmaker captured the last vestiges of a dying lifestyle in a rural village in Normandy.
60 years later, the senior citizens of the same village look back and share their memories... Authentic and delightful accounts of a time they are the last to have lived...

Analyzing what was the first version of the French newspaper « Liberation » during the 70’s, from 1973 to 1981, the film tells the story of a generation which took seriously the 1968 ideas and intended to put them in practice.
We discover how the newspaper was carrying inventions and craziness, inspiration’s moments, and excess sometimes astonishing. The film will also show how a newspaper team, just like a whole generation,...

We know Aimé Césaire in Africa and in Caribbean such as the man who invented the « Negritude ». The aim is to start a new era in history, which will be truly the one of human beings, going over servitude and slavery.
We know Césaire in literary history as a companion of the surrealist revolution: André Breton didn’t call him with admiration the « Fundamental Negro » ?
And also in Martinique, everybody knows the big “small man” : he stayed next to his people to improve day after...

The savoyard’s departments have now a bank of more than 4000 regional movies of amateur and professional film makers. This documentary series allows us to feel the amateur nature of the film makers but it’s also a unique tool preserving the collective memory: each documentary is the portrait of a period and its people. Hundred hours of films made between 1940 and 1970, in which the film makers bring us back to the 40s, in this rural region, sharing with us the field’s works, the villages’...

Under Hitler’s rule, 30,000 soldiers from the German army, the Wehrmacht, were condemned to death as objectors or deserters. 20,000 were executed. Those who were pardoned were sent to “punishment battalions” on the Eastern Front. 4,000 returned from the war.

Today, fewer than 300 former deserters still live in Germany.

This film tells the story of several of these men during and especially after the war, when, in West German society, they were stigmatised by a...